People v. Burleson

The statute requires that “ the grand jury can receive none but legal evidence.” Code Crim. Pro. § 256. While the proceedings before the grand jury are not as strict as upon a trial (People v. Willis, 23 Misc. Rep. 568), nevertheless an indictment cannot stand if it is founded upon illegal or incompetent evidence or upon insufficient evidence. People v. Glen, 173 N. Y. 395, 400. The evidence upon which the defendant was indicted was in material respects incompetent and the competent and legal evidence was wholly insufficient to warrant the indictment. The witnesses Roscoe and Lucy Elwell…